Medication reconciliation

Medication reconciliation means that the medicines the patient should be prescribed match those that are prescribed.

When a patient’s care is transferred to another clinician, a current and accurate list of medicines, including reasons for change, is given to that clinician. Some transition points are more prone to error and require special attention, such as:

Admission to hospital

Transfer from the emergency department to other care areas (wards, intensive care, home)

Transfer from the intensive care unit to the ward

From the hospital to home, aged care home or another hospital.

Unintentional changes to patients’ medicine regimens often happen during hospital admissions, and can cause patient harm during a hospital stay or after discharge:

Between 10% and 67% of medication histories have at least one error, and up to 33% of these errors have the potential to cause patient harm

More than 50% of medication errors occur at transitions of care

Patients with one or more medicines missing from their discharge information are 2.3 times more likely to be readmitted to hospital than those with correct information on discharge

85% of discrepancies in medication treatment originate from poor medication history taking.

Matching up medicines can help ensure continuity of care, and prevent harm by reducing the opportunity for medication errors.